Guangdong authorities have vowed to find out who killed two Uygurs during a massive fight between Han Chinese and Uygur workers at a Hong Kong-owned toy factory in Shaoguan on Friday, local media said.

Provincial party chief Wang Yang had stressed that hiring minorities from the western region was a key central government policy to narrow the wealth gap and redress uneven development between western and coastal provinces, Guangzhou's Nanfangdaily.com.cn said

'We should not allow such an occasional case to affect economic co-operation between east and west zones or our national unity,' he said in what appeared to be a move to placate Uygurs.

A massive fight between Han and Uygur workers at Early Light International (Holdings), owned by Hong Kong tycoon Francis Choi Chi-ming, left two dead and 16 seriously injured, Xinhua said yesterday.

Nanfang Daily said 120 people were injured - 81 Uygurs and 39 Han.

The paper said Mr Wang went to Shaoguan to comfort relatives of the two Uygur victims and visit some injured Uygurs yesterday afternoon.

He promised the Uygurs that the provincial government would hunt down and prosecute the killers.

The provincial government also promised to take full responsibility for the medical treatment of injured Uygur workers.

The website said Mr Wang had urged Mr Choi to arrange for the Uygur workers to work at other factories to avoid future disputes.